Numerous portable or mobile devices generate an audible signal upon occurrence of a particular event. These devices include mobile telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, digital media players, like MP3 players, etc. The invention is not limited to particular ones of such devices. An audible sound feature of a mobile device should be silenced when the mobile device is located in certain environments, such as a theater, school or church and wherever persons, animals or objects in its vicinity should not be disturbed by sound from the mobile device. The device may be set to silence the audible signal, such as a ring tone, or the device may be set to vibrate only without producing an audible signal. Upon the silenced mobile device or a person carrying the device leaving one of the environments, the person carrying the device may forget to restore or may delay restoring the audible signal feature volume on the mobile device. A person may misplace his mobile device or leave it behind when he leaves a location. The device is now set not to provide a ring or only to vibrate.
A common solution for locating a mobile device is for the person, particularly a searcher, trying to locate it to call the mobile device if it is or includes a telephone or to send an electronic message from another telephone or other transmitting device in the hope of locating the mobile device by someone hearing the audible signal feature of the mobile device that has been called. Unfortunately, in cases when the audible signal feature is silent, the person searching for the mobile device cannot locate the device by this method. Also, when the mobile device is left at another location than the one from which the searcher is calling, the caller will not hear the audible signal feature even if the caller is able to activate that feature by a telephone call, or the like.